According to experts, this year’s festival is the largest ever. Actors and directors from 50 countries, almost half of which are considered unfriendly, have come to Russia. With 51 and 20 films respectively, Russia and China are the most represented countries, followed by Spain and France with the most works. American and German productions will also be shown in larger numbers. This year’s festival jury is led by Luis Miñarro, a Spanish star director, producer and film critic.
The festival’s program this year presents more than 200 films. More than ten films from Belgium, Turkey, Korea, Argentina, Germany and other countries are competing in the main competition. At the press conference before the festival’s opening, its director Nikita Michalkow said:
“Which of the new countries will participate in the festival? There are fourteen: Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ireland, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Norway, Peru, Poland, Singapore, Croatia and Ecuador. Those who came are free people, they have nothing to fear. They have the right to make decisions. I am very grateful to all those who agreed to become jury members and participate as guests. By the way, there are more guests this year than in previous years.”
The large-scale film festival will last for a week and end on April 24. However, it can already be seen from the submitted works and selected films that the program of the Moscow Film Festival differs mainly in the content of the films from the West. “The festival shows that the world is tired of falsifications, imitations and revisions” noted film critics of the Rossijskaja Gazeta newspaper, who are familiar with the program productions, “The great screen is starving for other heroes: for courage – not from silicone, for mental greatness – not paid, for beauty and chivalry – not calculated by a computer brain.”
And it is no coincidence – the Moscow Film Festival, which the West tried to boycott in the years 2022 and 2023, is the oldest in the world. At the first festival, the legendary Sergei Eisenstein, the father of modern Western cinema, chaired the jury; giants of the film industry like Andrzej Wajda or Krzysztof Kieślowski made their debut and as “friends of the festival” titans like Jean Marais and Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Yves Montand appeared.